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Jorge Luis BorgesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The essay relies on the central extended metaphor of Borges being split into two beings. Borges uses this metaphor, maintaining two separate characters in the story to illustrate the duality of his identity. “Borges” represents his public, external persona, while “I” embodies his private, internal self. This framework allows him to examine the tension and separation between these two aspects of his identity, demonstrating the complex interplay between an author’s public image and their personal self. The metaphor also represents self-reflection, as one Borges—“I”—dissects the nature of the other contemplating his existence, the consequences of literary fame, and the ever-present duality of his identity.
Borges uses thought-provoking and poetic imagery to build this essay, enhancing the reader’s understanding of the duality of identity. For instance, he portrays his external persona, “Borges,” as a name written on mail, a list of professors, or in books, creating images that emphasize this literary identity as something that only exists on the page. Likewise, Borges describes his true self as “the laborious strumming of a guitar” (Paragraph 2), creating an auditory image that is more tactile than the text described previously.
By Jorge Luis Borges
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges
In Praise of Darkness
Jorge Luis Borges
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
Jorge Luis Borges
The Aleph
Jorge Luis Borges
The Aleph and Other Stories
Jorge Luis Borges
The Book of Sand
Jorge Luis Borges
The Circular Ruins
Jorge Luis Borges
The Garden of Forking Paths
Jorge Luis Borges
The Library of Babel
Jorge Luis Borges